Empowering Youth Through Art with Creative Justice and Executive Director Nikkita Oliver
Photos by Jordan Somers
Recently Trae Holiday hosted Nikkita Oliver on The Day with Trae, to talk about their work with Creative Justice. Oliver is the executive director of Creative Justice, an art space that aims to provide an engaging and healing space for youth and young adults.
“Youth and young adults, in particular, are those impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline and King County, Pierce County,” Oliver said. “Sometimes young people from Snohomish County, our biggest focus is creating and facilitating spaces, where young people can practice their self-determination, they can think about their creativity, can explore their power to manifest the future they want to live in.”
Creative Justice serves to provide spaces where young people can do key healing and accounting countability work through art space projects.
“When young people speak their truth and they let us know what they need, then we can come full circle back to a place where a young person is healthier because we responded to that need and that leadership,” Oliver said. “That is the philosophy that we operate in, with every single program we've developed for a young person or young adult.”
At Creative Justice, the development of programs isn't driven solely by staff members' ideas, but rather by the input and aspirations of the young people themselves. Oliver explained that the initiatives undertaken by Creative Justice emerge directly from the voices and experiences of the youth participants. When they express a need or propose an idea, whether it's through suggesting new initiatives or sharing their perspectives on what the program should prioritize, Creative Justice listens and endeavors to make those visions a reality.
“We're in the community, we don't build on behalf of, we build together,” Oliver said. “That is the ethos of the work and you use the word curate, I think that's so important that we think about this as curating, facilitating cultivating a space. And it does go back to, again, being youth-driven.”
Oliver explained that curating Creative Justice involves a collaborative effort that centers around community engagement and co-creation. With a dedicated team of 17 full-time staff members and an additional 33 individuals spread across the organization, the process is deeply rooted in partnership and collective action.
“We never do hiring without young people in the room,” Oliver said. “Too often, our young folks, whether it's at school, or after-school programs, or wherever they may go, they have no voice, and who's working alongside them, who's writing the curriculum, who's determining the day-to-day and so making sure young people are in the room from the jump, and they have an ad in our organization, they have a weighted vote, so their vote counts more than mine and a hiring process.”
The curriculum being developed within Creative Justice focuses on labor rights and empowerment. Through this program, young people are taught how to advocate for their rights in the workplace and ensure that they are treated fairly and justly. They learn about their rights as workers and how to assert them effectively in various employment settings.
“It is about building a cultural center that maintains spaces for our young people to be who they are and be safe,” Oliver said. “The other part of the Cafe is we want our young people to go off into the world ready to interact with all these different kinds of institutions.”
Oliver explained that the curriculum delves into the diverse opportunities available within the coffee industry. Participants are educated about the various roles they can pursue within the industry, including roasting, machine repair, barista work, marketing, and management. By understanding the breadth of career paths within the coffee sector, young people are empowered to explore their interests and pursue meaningful employment opportunities that align with their skills and aspirations.
“Running this venue together means that if you come and you rent our space, whether it's our large lodge space, the library, or classroom, every aspect of your rental goes back into creating justice ensuring that we can maintain this cultural institution and the central district maintain this cafe for young people and a myriad of other arts healing and accountability programming that we run throughout the week,” Oliver said.
You can visit the Creative Cafe located on the first floor of Washington Hall at 153 14th Avenue, Seattle, WA. The cafe is open Monday through Friday from 7 am to 3 pm. On the third Sunday of every month, the cafe hosts open mics, and doors open at 5:30 pm.
If you're interested in collaborating with Creative Justice or learning more about their programs and initiatives, you can reach out to them directly at creativejusticenw@gmail.com.
For more stories on spaces that center young people, tune in to Trae every weekday at 11 am on all Converge Media platforms and The Day With Trae YouTube Channel.
